ALA J U EL A AND THE VOLCANO POAS 33 1 



to be marked "Cafe de Costa Rica" — the shipping began. 

 When we were at El Brazil, and during all the preceding 

 years of the existence of the beneficio, its coffee was carried 

 by ox-carts over the Carretera Nacional from the courtyard 

 of the beneficio all the way to the wharf at Puntarenas. 

 It took four to six days to make the journey. The carts 

 traveled all night and rested through the day, saving both 

 drivers and oxen from the midday heat. In the fall of 1910 

 the gap in the government railroad from San Jose to Pun- 

 tarenas was completed, and since then the coffee has been 

 shipped by rail. It now reaches Puntarenas in five hours 

 with only one mile of carting to the railroad station. 



The country about Alajuela was so highly cultivated that 

 the stream ravines with their fringes of trees offered almost 

 the only collecting places of interest, and even these were 

 never productive of many dragonflies. They were very 

 pretty, however, and quite different in their vegetation from 

 the little valleys about Cartago. Along the Ciruelas River 

 were many uruca trees {Trichilia havanensis), mingled with 

 guayabos {Psidium guayava). The latter here grew twenty 

 to twenty-five feet high, and in their growth and habit of 

 branching closely resembled an old neglected apple tree. 

 The bark of course was utterly different, for the guayabo 

 has the habit of shedding its outer layers in large pieces which 

 curl up, usually lengthwise of the stem, into tight rolls before 

 they drop oif. As a result of this habit the tree is kept free 

 of epiphytic plants. The fruit was not ripe in September, 

 but we tasted it later. It is very good raw, but rarely reaches 

 perfection because so many small animals are fond of it 

 and consequently it was usually gathered and cooked in some 

 way before maturity. The cirueia or jocote {Spondias 

 purpurea) was very common about Alajuela, both along 

 the river banks and in the "living fences" where it replaced 

 the poro to some extent. It is rather a pretty tree and the 



